A Posse Ad Esse

Woke up to the smell of panettone-based French Toast and green chili turkey sausage. It was an amazing breakfast, and Jet was lovely and patient and eventhough there were stockings and presents under the tree, he carefully ate all of his breakfast before we went to open presents again.

It was lovely little stocking stuffers for all the adults, and a few small gifts for everyone. I think my favorite was the metal kazoo and the Pez dispenser. *laughs*

Jet got his gifts from Cathie and Walt and Isabel and George, including a very nice pair of snow pants for when we go up to Taos later this week. He also got a huge KEVA Contraptions set from Mindware that has 200 planks and some balls to boot to go through constructions. We played a little with some things, and then went to one of the local Pueblos to see the dancing. After a good half hour drive, though, we found that they weren't doing it in the day; and after a visit to a second pueblo, we were out of luck there was well.

It was interesting to see that the laws on the tribal lands included no taking of pictures and no sketching from life in those areas. Just part of their beliefs and law, that no images be taken.

From there we went to the Coronado State Monument and wandered about. There had been a dwelling there, the Kuaua pueblo, the Twa-speaking people and the Kwa-speaking people that had been separate there. Folks had rebuilt the walls, mixing everything up homogenously back in the '30's as part of the work projects of the Roosevelt Administration. Some of the murals in the Kivas were saved and stored for later exploration.

The monument was right next to the Rio Grande, as well, and Jet and I went and explored down there, through the red willow lining the shoreline. It was beautiful down there, and it was beautiful seeing the Sandia Mountains over the river and the trees. I took a few pictures, and will have time to download them tomorrow... as Walt and Cathie went back to the house just to get the tamales started in the steamer so that we could make a party at 3.

I had a story due tomorrow for a Secret Santa Exchange with the our_scriptorium, and I ended up, after getting a little to eat at the party, going out to the van, plugging my laptop into the car's extra battery, and writing the story there. *laughs* I so needed the time alone, and I really, really wanted to meet the deadline and I'd been incubating the story idea since I got the prompts back in October or so... so it was a good, fast write. Which was a good thing, as it was 28 out, in the sun, this morning, and I was wearing my down coat most of the day and needed my mittens and rabbit fur hat in the wind. Luckily the Eurovan caught all the sunshine and the interior was quite warm until the sun went down.

Then it started getting colder. John popped out to the van to tell me that the host of the party said that they had wifi and that I could upload the story as I pleased. So when I was done and my hands were nearly too cold to work the keyboard, I went into the house and uploaded my story to my lovely beta who had volunteered at the last minute as well. It was fast and easy; and then we all left the party. *laughs*

I was very happy I got the story up as John wanted to stop at the Trader Joe's on the way home. We had a cooler, a freezer at the house, and a plan to get everything home still frozen. So we actually were able to get a lot of frozen food from Trader Joes that we've never even tried before but looked intriguing. I got two boxes of the chocolate croissants, but they didn't have ANY of the sipping chocolate anymore. They'd run out, so I was glad I'd gotten the two boxes I had in San Diego. *laughs*

Back to the house, we all settled in, and made plans for the next several days as we hadn't even known, really, when we were leaving. Tomorrow night I have plans to meet up with an internet friend and see Sherlock Holmes as well. We figured out that going to Santa Fe on the train would be more fun for Jet, so we'll probably do it tomorrow. Later in the week, Cathie and Walt can take off, so going to Taos to ski was possible, as they did have beginner slopes at the bottom of the hill for Jet, who is all excited about going skiing. I'll actually get good time to write and maybe even draw then... as I have no desire to go sliding down snow slopes. It should be fun as we'll all go to the same hotel together, and Jet's looking forward to a hot tub. We'll probably leave Wednesday for all that.

I got Jet to bed on time; and then I was grateful to find that my beta had gotten my story back to me!! Woohoo... and while everyone watched Brother Where Art Thou I edited my story and got it all solidified so it's ready to put up tomorrow.

I loved the movie. *laughs* It's very Coen, very lyrical, and while it has some of the same violent elements all their movies have, there are those moments of strange sweetness.

I'm so glad you're claiming your journal back. I got all scared when my semagic said that we'd deleted each other, but I checked here and we're good, so I'm all confused; but now I can see you and you can see me and it's good. Whew.

AAAHH I miss you. but I'm away from home all week, but I wish I could IM with you some time after next Sunday?